A blog about individual and community development using new information and communication technologies, especially e-learning, open educational resources, open source, Web 2.0, blogs, wikis, social networking, social bookmarking, semantic web and other social software.

2014-12-26

As eLearning professionals, it's essential to keep up-to-date with the latest tools and technologies, even with those that may not be specifically intended for the world of eLearning. In this post I'll offer insight into the role that Google Glass might play in the future of online learning by delving into many uses of Google Glass in eLearning.

Today, eLearning professionals have access to a wide range of new wearable technologies. Each year brings bigger and better tools that give us the power to make learning experiences even more effective and meaningful for your audience.

Google Glass is one such tool: in this guide, I'll walk you through its many eLearning applications of today and tomorrow.

2014-12-24

The most online learners do not have a teacher at their place to explain things to them. Online learners cannot raise their questions before a teacher who can promptly provide answers to them. So, they do face difficulty in understanding things clearly while receiving education through online learning courses.

Their problem magnifies even more when teachers and professionals designing online courses do not give due attention to making things simple for them. As a result, online learners get to see too much of text, images, links,and graphics in their online course matter and they do not know on which online learning elements they should focus upon. There is hardly any cohesiveness and consistency in the learning message imparted to them. The navigation of these online courses is far from easy. Sometimes images relevant to the online course matter are not there. Instead those images are added which make the online learning material look pretty and have no relation with an online course’s theme. This can confuse the online learners.

2014-12-23

Thanks to pretty incredible traction in an industry that historically has been loathe to adopt technology, Clever has raised a new, $30 million round of financing just one year after its last round. The funding is being led by Lightspeed Venture Partners and includes participation from existing investor Sequoia Capital, as well as new investors GSV Capital and Peter Thiel.

2014-12-16

“The Activity Health Kit will allow organizations to enhance their corporate wellness programs with a unique plug-and-play health and fitness technology bundle that enables employees to monitor and manage their daily health and wellness,” a provided statement reads. “The kit is offered as a Health and Wellness Solution through an innovative ecosystem created by B2 Group that includes several retail and technology partners.”

2014-12-15

“Historically, a lot of the focus in health has been on rural health,” explained Prof Anthony Capon, director of the UN University’s International Institute for Global Health, based in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. But since 2008, more people live in towns and cities than rural areas. Currently, an estimated 3.9bn people live in urban areas. This total is projected to increase to in excess of six billion people by the middle of this century.

2014-12-12

Technology has the potential to rapidly increase these numbers as the Internet and mobile computing can provide access to education even in areas where there are not enough teachers. With digital textbooks and resources like Khan Academy, massive open online courses (MOOCs), and other avenues for online education, African students can have access to the same high-quality education as students in developed countries around the world. This will level the playing field for African students by providing avenues toward not only basic literacy (more than one-third of adults in Sub-Saharan Africa can’t read), but also digital and other literacy that will allow them to compete globally and pursue professional careers.

2014-12-07

Thomson’s Vines from Sierra Leone caused a stir on Twitter. People weren’t used to seeing six-second snatches of video, usually reserved for comedy, being used to document such serious subject matter. But his use of Vines to record snapshots of the situation seemed to work – “Your coverage of the Ebola outbreak has been fantastic. I understand the situation much better because of it”, one Twitter user tweeted to Thomson.

This free Alison online course in digital photography gives you the opportunity to gain extensive knowledge and understanding of digital photography including topics such as exposure settings, how to read and use the histogram, how light affects a photograph, how the camera sensor work, how camera lenses work, and how to process a photograph using computer software.

2014-12-06

It is becoming evident that for a variety of reasons, including cost, infrastructure, literacy, and attitudes, a “digital divide” is developing between those who are in a position to take advantage of technology-enabled opportunities and those who are not.

Ariel Schwartz, Senior Editor at Co.Exist:

In Austin, Google is helping to bridge that gap by offering its Google Fiber high-speed Internet service to the 4,300 people who live in public housing offered by the Housing Authority of the City of Austin (HACA). Once a household signs on, they get 10 years of free service (and the option to upgrade to more premium services at any time).

“This is the first partnership with a major public housing provider in a big city in which residents are being offered Fiber to the home and the opportunity to sign up for that at no cost,” says Parisa Fatehi-Weeks, the community impact manager for Google Fiber Austin.

2014-12-04

IT covers many different areas of computer programming, engineering, system design and more. Information sharing has become an important part of business management today. The field is expanding to meet the needs of modern times and becoming involved in that expansion could prove to be very rewarding. There are a variety of information technology degrees that can be obtained. This page provides more information about studying an information technology masters degree.

2014-12-01

George Siemens is an internationally renowned and highly respected professor and researcher of technology, networks, analytics, and openness in education. Currently the Executive Director of the Learning Innovation and Networked Knowledge Research Lab at University of Texas, Dr Siemenshas, amongst others things, been responsible for pioneering MOOCs, advised government agencies and numerous universities around the world on digital education and learning analytics, and has authored books on connectivism and knowledge processes.

A keynote speaker at ONLINE EDUCA BERLIN 2014, Dr Siemens spoke to OEB Editor Annika Burgessabout how data is providing opportunities that teachers and educators can’t, why his latest ‘new-look’ MOOC has its critics and where he sees e-learning headed in the future.

Universities risk becoming irrelevant and irresponsible if they don’t equip staff to deal with the digital age, said Martin Bean, vice-chancellor of the Open University, in the 2014 Sir John Cass’s Foundation Lecture at the Cass Business School in London.

Bean said he wanted to focus his 5 November lecture on the tyranny of conventional wisdom, particularly in education, where “disruptive innovation” is forcing people to reconsider the very foundations of learning and teaching.

2014-11-28

From 1 to 12 December, Peru will host the 20th Conference of Parties (COP 20) to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change — the latest in a series of meetings by the UN’s decision-making body on climate action.

The event is promoting the participation of indigenous peoples, who are set to voice their views and discuss solutions at the meeting. And Peru’senvironment minister, who has spoken about the role of science, technology and traditional knowledge in tackling climate change. Through images and interviews, this feature probes how science and traditional knowledge are combined at the Potato Park — an area in the Cusco region of Peru where indigenous Quechua communities live and work to systematically preserve hundreds of varieties of the native potato as well as other Andean root vegetables and tubers.

2014-11-23

More than any other invention of our time, the Internet has unlocked possibilities we could just barely imagine a generation ago. And here’s a big reason we’ve seen such incredible growth and innovation: Most Internet providers have treated Internet traffic equally. That’s a principle known as “net neutrality” — and it says that an entrepreneur’s fledgling company should have the same chance to succeed as established corporations, and that access to a high school student’s blog shouldn’t be unfairly slowed down to make way for advertisers with more money.

That’s what President Obama believes, and what he means when he says there should be no gatekeepers between you and your favorite online sites and services.

We are all too familiar with the challenges that face agriculture. The average age of a farmer in the developing world is 55-60 years. Young people are less attracted to agriculture, which they perceive as backward and unrewarding, often looking to other sectors for their careers. However, ICTs are proving to be a good avenue when it comes to enticing the youth into agriculture, not only to work as young farmers, but also to help modernise the sector with the use of new technologies.

2014-11-21

Open educational resources (OER) are digitized materials that are available for use and re-use in teaching, learning, and research, very often under a Creative Commons license. In this page you can find out more about the many benefits – and some challenges – in using these valuable resources …

2014-11-20

It has been reported by Biztech Africa that TECNO, a device manufacturer that has a strong focus on the the African mobile space is set to introduce a smartphone priced at a under $30 next year.

The company is out to lower the barriers to smartphone ownership in Africa with this move.

Although the TECNO brand is hardly visible in Zimbabwe it would definitely be a welcome entrant in a market that has a very low smartphone penetration rate (just 15% which is low relative to the 106.4% mobile phone penetration rate).

In Africa the prospects for internet based opportunities that follow any exponential increase in smartphone penetration are remarkable seeing that internet access is largely through the phone.

Currently the local market is dominated by the now waning Nokia brand which has a strong following through Series 40 and S60 feature phones.

Last Saturday, Zimbabwe took part in the global TED movement once again as we witnessed TEDxHarare 2014 which was held at local tech hub Hypercube Hub.

Several perspectives on a proactive Zimbabwean thought process were raised through very inspiring talks and insights shared by the different speakers that took to the stage.

While there were countless takeaways from the different talks given by the eight speakers and from the inspiring TED videos shown on the day, there are some insights that had direct and immediate relevance to startups.

2014-11-19

KA LITE is an offline version of Khan Academy offering high-quality education by bringing the online learning accessible to the offline users. This open-source software runs on the local server and users can watch Khan Academy videos and do exercises as well as track student’s progress, etc, everything without Internet connectivity.

2014-11-18

As the name suggests, adult education programs prepare you to work with adult learners. The programs are based on adult learning philosophy, known as andragogy. In andragogy, learners are assumed to be self-motivated, self-directed, and have accumulated life experiences that need to be accounted for in course design and delivery. Adult learners are also goal-oriented and so the course goals and objectives must be established early in the course. They are relevancy-oriented, and so must see a reason for learning something, and the practical applications of what is being taught need to be clear. Also, adult learners need to be treated with respect – with valuable experience and knowledge. All these considerations impact on course development and delivery, so as to result in a totally different learning experience to that which many of the adults might have experienced during their earlier years in secondary education.

This page provides information on what is studied in these programs, where you can study them, what the prospects are after completion, and more.